Home with extensive underground tunnels listed for £300,000

A property in Reading, England, featuring an elaborate network of underground tunnels dug by hand by a previous owner over two decades, has been listed for sale at £300,000.

The subterranean complex, extending over 1,300 square feet and reaching more than 15 meters below ground, was created by Tony Deane, a civil engineer, with assistance from his six children. The tunnels descend through four levels and include storage rooms and a hand-built railway.

Deane began the project in the 1980s and '90s, excavating the chalk manually using only buckets and wheelbarrows. He also constructed a one-tonne goods lift and incorporated two secret doors, one of which is a 1.5-tonne sliding concrete wall. A unique feature is a secret entrance to a room hidden inside a rocket ship beside the property's swimming pool.

The Deane family's underground construction began earlier, in the 1960s, with the creation of subterranean changing rooms for the pool, accessed through a 23-foot-high rocket.

Despite the scale of the underground network, its existence was largely unknown to Deane's neighbors. The property also includes a 2,500 square foot workshop, parking, gardens, and the swimming pool area.

Planning permission has been granted for a new five-bedroom house to be built on the site of the swimming pool and for the conversion of the workshop into a three-bedroom house. Auctioneers suggest the underground space could have various potential uses, such as secure storage, a fallout shelter, or a data center.

The property is set to be auctioned in October with a guide price of £300,000 to £325,000.